House can assert power of purse, says Pichay

The House of Representatives may always insist on asserting its power of the purse in determining what mode of appropriation the government should employ in spending the P3.757-trillion national budget for 2019, Deputy Majority Leader Prospero Pichay Jr. said on Monday. “The executive branch can only submit its budget. But [whether] it is cash-based or obligation-based, the power of the purse is with the Congress,” Pichay said at a press briefing. “We don’t need to quarrel with them. It’s either we accept it or we reject it,” he added. Pichay, who secured the key post in the 292-member legislative body last week, supported the
argument of Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr., who said that slashing the national budget by using cash-based appropriations would contradict President Duterte’s ambitious “Build, Build, Build” program. But he apparently opposed Andaya’s stand that the House find a common ground with Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno as the latter was adamant in declaring that Malacañang would rather operate with a reenacted budget than revert to obligation-based budgeting. —MARLON RAMOS